The present invention relates to communication systems and more particularly to a system and method for presenting and capturing images on a presentation board.
Presentation boards are well known and prevalent in business environments today. One of the most common presentation boards is a so-called xe2x80x9cwhiteboard.xe2x80x9d A whiteboard is a hard white surface upon which a person may write or draw using special xe2x80x9cdry erasexe2x80x9d markers. When the drawing or text is no longer needed, a cloth eraser is passed over the image, removing the black marks left by the marker.
Often, the image drawn on a whiteboard during the course of a meeting needs to be saved by one or more of the attendees. In many cases, this results in the image being manually copied into a notebook before the image can be erased and the next image created. A problem with this is that it is both time consuming and error prone.
One solution is to take photographs of important images to assure that they are saved, or xe2x80x9ccaptured,xe2x80x9d properly. A problem with this is that photographic images of a whiteboard are often difficult to read. Furthermore, even the use of a camera to record the image may require additional transcription before the information may be used for other purposes, such as emailing to the attendees or inclusion in subsequent presentations, for example. The Panasonic Panaboard (KX-BP series) is an example of a device that uses a CCD camera to view images on the whiteboard and captures them to a file or prints them.
Attempting to resolve the issues of speed and accuracy in capturing images, products have emerged that use a variety of techniques to automatically record the contents of a whiteboard.
One solution uses a special whiteboard (e.g., sensitive to pressure or containing infrared or ultrasonic transducers) to sense markings. Another solution uses a whiteboard that contains an array of light sensitive components such as phototransistors that are capable of sensing dark markings on the surface of a translucent screen.
A problem with such solutions is that they are not very practical, because of the size of the whiteboard, the cost of the transducers, and the need for near perfect input from the large array of sensors.
Another solution is to use a roll of paper that scrolls across the front of the device. A clean area of the paper is moved into position on the front of the device and the paper is held stationary while the image is drawn. When the image is complete, the paper is made to scroll again and the image passes under a scanner on the side of the device. At the same time that the image is scanned, a clean area of paper is moved into position on the front of the device for the next image. U.S. Pat. No. 5,914,745 describes an example of such a device.
Generally, these solutions attempt to address the problem of capturing images from a white board. The problem with all of these devices is that they are tedious, inaccurate, or require a special whiteboard, or a whiteboard combined with an image sensor or scanner making them not very portable.
Accordingly, what is needed is a system and method for presenting and capturing images on a presentation board. The system and method should be portable and convenient to use. The present invention addresses such needs.
An image capture and display (ICD) device and a method of use are disclosed. The ICD device includes a projector adapted to display one or more images onto a surface and a camera adapted to capture the one or more images from the surface. Also provided is an interface and control electronics coupled to the projector and to the camera. The interface and control electronics is adapted to feed the projector with the one or more images and adapted to process the one or more images from the camera.
According to the system and method disclosed herein, the present invention provides numerous benefits. It provides a useful, novel, and non-trivial solution to the problem of presenting, capturing, and modifying images on a whiteboard in a conference room, classroom, or office environment. In addition to the ability to display presentations prepared in advance and the ability to record drawings produced during the course of a meeting, the system responds to other types of input. Such input can include gestures or menu selections made by a person. Such input can be used to modify the current drawing or text, save the current contents of the whiteboard, recall a previous image.